Ming Maizie

Things I do Not Want to Forget

2007-12-26T22:58:00.000-07:00

-How you run around with your stool so you can turn lights on and off.

-How you say ":Hi Mommy" when you want to charm something out of me.

-How you say open and close when you want to lay on my arm and have me cuddle you.

-How you say scoop instead of scoot.

-How you play your guitar with your knuckles.

-How you like to act out parts of books.

-That you learned how to use the word actually.

-How you love the part of books when someone is sad.

Bo Update

2007-11-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

We sent Bo care package sometime in the summer and we received a couple of photos in return with the items from our care package. We went ahead and sent a second one since we felt confident that he would receive it and we wanted more photos. This is one of our most recent photos. He looks incredibly happy and healthy. We also have numerous photos of Bo with his foster family which we will not post since we do not have their permission to splash their photos over the internet. In the photos, they look like a very happy family. Our thoughts are with them with the big changes that are about to take place for Bo and his foster family.

We have tentative travel dates for January 3-16th. We are hoping that our travel approval gets here quickly and they can move the dates up a little bit, but it is not looking like that is likely.

We did also decide on a name for Bo, but we really just prefer you call him Bo, however he is going to be Camden Jeffery Bo (insert last name). We really like the name, although I do wonder a bit what our New Jersey relatives will think of it. It is an old Scottish name meaning winding valley. Maizie is old Scottish nickname for Margaret so I guess that is our theme, though we tried to avoid that. Naming is a tricky subject. As parents, we really want to name our children, except in our case our children come with history and names. After discussing all the pros and cons of changing Bo's name, we decided to name him the same way we named Maizie. New first name then a family name, then part of their Chinese name and then our last name. This is the name we have chosen but it is not a name that our children may ultimately decide represents them best, and we will applaud their feelings on that matter. One of my wishes in life is that as my children grow, they will feel comfortable discussing their thoughts on their adoption with us.

While in China, we hope to visit Maizie's orphanage. We are working very hard to get the approval. A few months after returning home with Maizie, her orphanage started letting visitors in to see the place. We are hoping that we can visit for ourselves, so we can tell Maizie what her first home was like.

We will keep you posted as we know more.

Maizie's Idea of Looking Good

2007-11-12T22:22:00.001-07:00

Maizie loves to walk around with a qtip out of each ear and she always requests I take a picture of it and then she laughs and laughs over it. Our Maizie is very funny.

LOA

2007-11-08T21:48:00.000-07:00

We received our LOA today! This means we have been approved and matched with our son by the Chinese government. Our agency has given us tentative travel dates for the first week of January. Bo will be 18 months we meet him.

Happy Halloween

2007-10-31T20:55:00.000-06:00

Jump Those Tears Away

2007-10-25T21:17:00.000-06:00

Maizie and I have been talking about her life story and Bo's story. I have been explaining to her that Bo may cry when he meets us because we are new to him. Maizie is very interested in tears so I think she kind of likes the part of the story in which there may be crying. She never just says that she is crying, she always says "Maizie cry tears". I asked Maizie what we should do if Bo cried and Maizie said we should jump. So there is our plan. Bo cries, we will jump. I hope it works.

We did get some additional updated photos of Bo. We sent him a care package and we received photos of him with his care package items. He looks very healthy and happy. I think we are going to be jumping a lot.

Hold You

2007-10-19T21:19:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite things that Maizie says is "Hold you". She doesn't quite have the use of "me" down. So when she wants a cuddle, I hear"Hold you mama". It is really the best thing ever.

Bits and Pieces

2007-09-26T22:17:00.000-06:00

1. No news on Bo. It will still probably be awhile before we hear anything. We have started to discuss Bo with Maizie. She is learning the terminology, such as "baby brother", but I do not think she is old enough to anticipate the changes. We let her pick things out for him in an effort to make it more concrete. For example if we are buying her a book, she picks one out for baby brother. We have been getting a lot of fabric for Bo's quilt. Of course I am going to extend the deadline so if you have not sent it, please do. We still need a lot of squares to make our 100.

2. Maizie elevated toilet flushing from a hobby to a job. She calls it her job and she takes it very seriously. Unfortunately she has decided she no longer wants anyone to flush because we are saving it for later. Jeff and I do a lot of secret toilet flushing behind her back. Not sure what we are saving it for or when later is.

3. Maizie currently hates tags. We are cutting off all the tags off of her clothing and stuffed animals.

4. I do a lot of shopping for Maizie's shirts in the boy department. They do not offer Thomas the Tank shirts for girls. Cookie Monster and Mickey are also hard to find in girl clothes and so I just started buying from the boy departments.

5. When Maizie is concentrating very hard she sticks her tongue out. It is very cute. It is also something Jeff does.

6. Maizie loves collecting sticks right now and playing ring around the rosy. Maizie is deeply into Halloween. She alternates between wanting to be Elmo or Cookie Monster for Halloween. I want her to be a pumpkin but we made the mistake of asking her opinion so now we are kind of stuck with it if we do not want to disappoint her.

7. Maizie loves doorbells. If you come to our house, please ring the doorbell multiple times. It will make her happy.

8. Cute story, the other night the clouds were out and kept drifting in front of the moon. Maizie played a very cute came of peek a boo with the moon. Whenever Maizie can't find the moon, she smiles really big and declares it a "tricky moon". I think her Aunt Beth started with the "tricky moon". We have told Maizie that during the day the moon goes to China to say hi to baby brother, her first family and the caregivers at the orphanage. So if you ask her where the moon is at during the day, Maizie will tell you that it is in China.

9. As of tonight Maizie carried to bed with her: 3 blankets, boop, bunny boop, the new puppy boop, kitty cat pillow, Goofy doll, 2 George dolls (big and little), a monkey and a small bumble bee. Maizie loves her stuffed toys.

10. Maizie has always been a little difficult to put to bed. It started shortly after she started to become comfortable with us. She needs some time to goof off before falling asleep. She is very inventive on how to keep engaging us in order to stay awake. When she was little it consisted of flinging Boop off the bed repeatedly. She went through a period in which we had to build elaborate pillow tents around her in order to block out any speck of light. Currently she wants to be covered in blankets to fall asleep. Once she lays down she says she wants to "Close eyes", which means put a blanket over her head. Do not worry I remove the blanket the second she falls asleep. For a long time she did not want a blanket over her toes, but now she HAS to have a blanket over her toes. So every time she shifts as she is trying to fall asleep we have to reclose eyes and recover toes. It is all very elaborative and designed to keep us in our place but it also seems to be what she needs so it is what we do. I am more than a little interested to see how that works when Bo comes home. I imagine her antics will just keep him up.

2006/2007

2007-09-26T22:02:00.000-06:00

The top picture was taken August 2006 and the bottom September of 2007. I love comparing similar photos to see how much Maizie has grown.

Bo's 100 Wishes

2007-09-04T19:53:00.000-06:00

Dear Family and Friends,

As many of you already know, Jeff and I are adopting a son. Our son was born in China on July 20, 2006. He is currently being cared for by his foster family while we wait for permission to travel to China and complete the adoption.

While waiting for Maizie, I made a “100 Good Wishes Quilt” for her. Many of you contributed to her quilt with a chosen fabric and wish. As you can see by the enclosed picture, the quilt turned out beautifully. Maizie likes to flip through the scrap book of wishes and admire the fabrics you chose.

We would like to make a quilt for our son also and need your help once again.

If you would like to participate, please send me enough fabric for two 8” x 8” squares. The fabric should be 100% cotton. Any print that chose will be perfect as there is no theme to the quilt fabrics. You do not need to cut the squares. You might find it easiest to purchase a fat quarter or ¼ yard of fabric. Do not worry about pre-washing the fabric as I will do that also. Additionally, please enclose a wish written on any type of note card, greeting card or paper. Good wishes may include a poem, religious verse, favorite saying or quote. The purpose of the wish is to identify who contributed, what fabric they contributed and their joy in our son’s arrival.

I would like to have the quilt completed before we travel. We anticipate traveling sometime between December and March. If you intend to contribute please send the fabric and wish to us by October 1, 2007. If you would like to be included but are not able to send fabric by then, please send a wish and I will select a fabric for you.

We will continue to update our blog with news on Maizie, our son and our travels. You can visit us at: www.mingmaizie.blogspot.com.

We want to thank all of you for your contributions. We truly enjoyed receiving the fabric and wishes for Maizie and eagerly anticipate the enjoyment your wishes for Bo will bring us.

Jeff, Carrie and Maizie

I will be mailing out the above letter in the next few days. If you have viewed this letter on our blog and would like to contribute but do not have our address, please email me and I will let you know were to send the wish and fabric to.

More Maizie Fun Facts

2007-09-01T21:40:00.001-06:00

I know I only posted Fun Facts about two months ago but I wanted to list some fun 2 year old stuff.

1. Maizie just started with the "Whys". The first 1-2 whys in a series of questions are kind of cute but I run out of answers after that. My favorite series of why questions went as follows.

Mommy: Maizie do not bite Mommy.
Maizie: Why?
Mommy: Because it hurts.
Maizie: Why?
Mommy: It makes Mommy cry.
Maizie: Pinch Mommy?

2. Maizie is 90% potty trained. Maizie has made this part of parenting simple. I am a little worried about regression when Bo comes home. She will only wear diapers at night, although she rarely wets in it. Maizie is the official toilet flusher of the household. If she hears Jeff or I head for the bathroom she goes running so fast to make sure we do not flush for ourselves.

3. Maizie loves accessories. She does not pay much attention to her clothes, but loves shoes, necklaces, hats, sunglasses, and purses.

4. Maizie's lovey is a little towel/blanket with a bunny head that was given to me by my supervisor. We call him the Boop. Boop came by his name because it was the sound we made every time Boop touched Maizie's nose. Maizie loves Boop. Maizie also likes to carry three blankets with her. Maizie does this thing we call "The Pack Up". Boop is always in the pack up, usually all 3 blankys, and then whatever else captures Maizie's fancy at the moment. Whatever is in the pack up goes from room to room with us. The only time we are allowed to touch Boop or blankys are when we are being packed up to move to the next room. Maizie has a second Boop at daycare. We call him Booposter.

5. Maizie counts to ten. She does not pronounce the letter "F" very clearly so it sounds like "one, ,two, pee, pour, pive".

6. Maizie continues to learn her letters. Maizie knows "A, B, C, D, E, H, M, O, T, X".

7. Maizie sings three songs. Twinkle, Twinkle and Row, Row, Row your Boat and Jingle Bells.

8. Maizie is a back seat driver. She knows red means stop and green means go. When we are stopped at a red light, she will yell for a green light. When we are on our way home from daycare, she frequently asks me to go to Daddy's work instead of home.

9. If you ask Maizie wants she want to eat she always answers "Mac y Cheese". She will eat a lot of different things but if you ask her, she will only request "Mac y Cheese".

10. Maizie loves to relive all of her injuries. If Maizie falls, we all have to come look and see where it happened and what part of her body was hurt. Maizie loves band aids. Maize has a lot of fake owies that she blames on the cats.

Bo Baby!

2007-09-01T21:03:00.001-06:00

I know that we have not done a very good job of updating on Bo. We spent all of our free time in July getting our dossier ready so that it could go to China. Not sure what happened to August.

So much has happened in regards to our adoption of Bo. We did manage to get our dossier done with very few problems. We were DTC on August 3, 2007. What that means is that all of our paperwork, which is called the dossier, was sent to China by our agency on August 3. Once our dossier made it to China, our agency translated it and submitted it to the CCAA, which is the government agency that oversees adoption in China. We do not know our LID date yet. Typically it takes awhile before we find that out. A LID date is the date that the CCAA enters us into their computer.

We also received our PA. PA means preapproval. That means CCAA has reviewed our LOI (the first set of paperwork we sent over) and approved us to proceed with Bo's adoption. Of course the still need to approve our dossier. The PA does not give any indication of our time line but it is still nice to have. Our agency has advised us that it is taking approximately 90-200 day to receive an LOA or Letter of Acceptance. An LOA will be issued after our dossier has been approved. After we sign the LOA we wait for travel approval or "TA". After our TA is received our agency will schedule our travel dates and off we go. We expect to travel in late December at the earliest and March at the latest. Hope you got all of that!

Now for the exciting news. I joined a yahoo group for people that have adopted children from the Shanxi province. After posting an introduction, I received an email from China Care. China Care is a charity that works with orphans in China and they are sponsoring Bo. They sent us 142 pictures of him starting from shortly after his birth until recently. We know that he is living with a foster family. The foster family has two older girls and he is being cared for by his stay at home foster mom. It is clear from the photos that he is very well cared for and loved. He has also had both his lip and palate repaired. In regards to his medical condition, he will need to examined when he comes home and will need surgeries in the future, but at least none right when he comes home. The news did bring us some sadness in that it hurt to to be reminded of how many photos we do not have of our Maizie. We also feel a lot of sadness for Bo and his foster family knowing that our adoption will be very hard on both of them.

And here are a couple of photos for you!

Maizie's 2nd

2007-09-01T20:39:00.001-06:00

Maizie turned 2 years old! This birthday was a lot different than last year. This year Maizie understands gifts and enjoys cake.

We started off her birthday week with a party with our extended family on Jeff's side. We had been talking about a choo choo party for weeks. Just for fun Maizie would occasionally request an Elmo party but since the choo choo party favors were purchased there was no changing themes. Jeff's family caters to Maizie's every whim. See my nice party hat. All the adults were wearing them.

Her favortite gift by far was a guitar given to her by her Uncle Li Li. No one was allowed to touch it. If anyone even looked at it, she clutched it tightly and said "Maizie's guitar".

Then on Maizie's birthday we took pizza and cupcakes to her daycare. We did plan on having a party for all of her friends and cousins but we never quite got organized. We were in the middle of finishing up our dossier for Bo and just did not plan timely. Turns out it was a good thing because when Maizie woke up from her nap after the party at daycare the first thing she said was "No more choo choo party." I figured that was a pretty good sign that she was done celebrating. I am very impressed that she knows her limits and knows when to quit partying. Let's hope she remembers that when she turns 21.

Fun Facts

2007-07-09T23:18:00.001-06:00

Fun Facts

1. Maizie still loves slides, however this summer she also has taken an interests in swings. She will go down the slides not only as we taught her, but also face first on her stomach and backwards.

2. Maizie still loves sunglasses. I think she has six pairs. Of course, we can never find them when we need them. She likes to wear them upside down.

3. Maizie knows most of the main colors. She seems partial to green and pink. She has requested to wear pink on more than one occasion. She also likes it when she and I wear matching colors. I do not own a whole lot of pink, so this does not happen very often.

4. Maizie also recognizes the letter "A" and "X" almost always, the letter "B" half the time, and "C and D" occasionally. We were watching tv one day last week and the letter A was on and Maizie shocked me by pointing it out and telling me that it was an "A". She loves to watch people write letters and words.

5. Last week Maizie found her shadow.

6. Last week Maizie figured out how to walk backwards. She also does a wonderful somersault.

7. Maizie loves all things transportation. She loves trains. Of course we call them choo choos. She is planning on having a choo choo birthday party if we ever figure out the details. She also loves helicopters. Maizie calls them "helipocters". Helipocters and Popsicles are the two longest words she says, which just shows how deeply she feels for them. She is also fond of trucks, mowers, and buses.

8. Maizie would eat Popsicles all day if she could. She most often requests a pink Popsicle , not sure if that is because of the flavor or the color.

9. Maizie desperately wants to be potty trained, however she does not quite have the control for it. She also uses the potty to get out of bed after we have put her down for the night.

10. When Maizie gives affection, she mostly pats us on the back. It is very sweet.

Maizie on the 4th

2007-07-09T23:06:00.001-06:00

Maizie really enjoyed the 4th of July. Maizie has always been a fan of loud noises. Her first full sentence was to comment on the level of noise that her Uncle's mower makes. "Gee mows loud." So we were not really surprised that she enjoys fireworks. Maizie calls them "crashy bangs". Maizie adds a "y" to many of her words: eggy, waggy (wagon), looky and so forth. Crashy bangs is her version of crash, boom, bang. She also enjoys loud trucks, load choo choos, and loud thunderstorms.

Bo

2007-06-23T22:55:00.001-06:00

Here is another picture of our son. Our Letter of Intent was mailed this last Friday. Our agency has approved us to be matched with Bo, but now China gets to look at us. We sent over a letter stating our reasons for wanting to adopt Bo along with a letter from our doctor detailing Bo's future treatment. In 1-2 months China should issue preapproval, meaning we have been approved to proceed with our request for adopting Bo. China will still have to review our dossier, which we are currently trying to hurry along. We hope to have our final version of our home study this week so that we can request approval from Homeland Security to bring Bo home. After we receive that approval, we will be ready to send our dossier off to China. We hope to be DTC by the end of July. At that point we then wait for China to review all our dossier documents and send us our LOA, "Letter of Acceptance". It can take 3-6 months to receive the LOA after your DTC date and then an additional 1-2 months to actually travel.

We are trying to decide if we are going to set up a different blog or website for Bo's adoption. I know a lot of people have questions about this process as opposed to the one we experience with Maizie and we are considering how best to share the information.

One Year With Maizie

2007-06-11T16:51:00.002-06:00

It’s hard to believe that today marks the one-year anniversary of the date we first met Maizie. The year sure went by quickly. Maizie has brought great joy to our lives and, by all accounts, seems to be thriving. She has grown and learned a lot in the last year. It will be interesting to see how she deals with the transition to being a big sister.

We Have a Son!!!

2007-06-08T16:05:00.001-06:00

It's with great joy that we announce that we have been referred a waiting child through A Helping Hand Adoption Agency. Maizie is going to be a big sister. Our son's Chinese name is Dang Yibo. He was born on July 20, 2006, and is waiting in Taiyuan City in Shanxi Province. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiyuan

We will complete our paperwork as quickly as possible, but won't travel to pick up our son for 6 to 10 months.

A Goat for Emily

2007-05-21T05:34:00.000-06:00

July 2006

May 2007

Maizie has certainly grown a lot!

My friend Emily is looking for a goat and Maizie found one for her. Feel free to come see Maizie's goat anytime you want Em! You can visit Emily here:
http://emilyontopoftheworld.blogspot.com/

Maizie's Nebraska Adoption

2007-05-13T20:51:00.000-06:00

The hearing for Maizie's Nebraska re-adoption was on May 9, 2007. Here are pictures of us entering the courthouse and after the hearing.

Happy Easter!

2007-04-10T20:53:00.000-06:00

So Cute!

2007-04-01T22:35:00.000-06:00

She Bakes, She Paints

2007-03-18T20:28:00.000-06:00

Every time I think Maizie could not be any more fun, then she is. She is now old enough that she likes a planned activity.....for about five minutes, maybe ten. It is a really good five minutes. We made cupcakes the other day for Maizie first baking experience. We did offer her a taste of the batter, but she declined.

She also likes to finger paint. I think she mostly likes to watch the paint plop. When she does not feel like touching the paint she takes our hands and moves it around in the paint. Since we have known her she will use our hands as an extension of her own. For example she will hold onto our thumbs and push our hands to hit buttons or turn pages. The other day Aunt Mel said that Maizie grabbed Mel's finger to shake at Uncle G when he corrected her.

Maizie's Favorite Part of the Lunar New Year

2007-02-19T20:43:00.000-07:00

Happy Year of the Pig!

We have seen two lion dances for Chinese New Year and Maizie absolutely loved them. The dances do not last very long and Maizie kept asking for more.

We celebrated CNY last weekend with the local FCC group (the adoption group of families with children from China). Then yesterday the Year of Pig officially started. We went to a party hosted by the Chinese student associations from the local colleges. We did not know as many people at the second party, but we had a great time. Maizie enjoyed the entertainment, but then got distracted from the scheduled entertainment by her friend An Ling. It was fun because this was the first time An Ling and Maizie figured out they could chase each other around. An Ling gave Maizie a couple of very strong hugs to Maizie's displeasure. That was a switch because usually it is Maizie trying to grab onto the other kids and causing the screams. All in all a very good beginning to a new year.

For my Mom

2007-02-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

Maizie At Play

2007-01-21T21:56:00.000-07:00

Maizie is back into reading. She had taken a break from reading to concentrate on her climbing. As you can see, she has mastered the art of climbing and is now willing to split her time between reading and climbing.

Maizie makes sure all of her dollies are well fed. She makes a little clicking sound as she feeds them.

Maizie has also started drawing. Her favorite place to draw is on the wall. I keep telling her how much Mommy likes it when she draws on paper, but that does not seem to be as important as her artistic expression.

It is hard to see, but she has a little plastic pig on her head. One of her favorite dvds has a song about a pig on your head. Maizie likes to put the pig on her head so that we can sing about it. Maizie likes my singing, which is just so sweet and sad because my singing is horrible.

Family Photo

2007-01-09T19:44:00.000-07:00

Happy Holidays!

2006-12-24T21:13:00.000-07:00

Pigtails

2006-12-18T19:55:00.000-07:00

Maizie admires herself a lot. Every time she tries on a new look (sunglasses, purses, shoes, hair bow) we have to go look in two different mirrors to see how it looks. She normally does not like it when I put her hair up in pigtails, yet she admired these little hair bows so much she insisted they go in.

Six Months With Sweet Maizie James

2006-12-11T22:22:00.000-07:00

I can’t hardly believe that today (December 11) marks the six month anniversary of the date we first met Maizie. What a six months it has been. She continues to amaze and thrill us each day. Below are some pictures of some of her latest adventures. Maizie is into Christmas lights and decorations and now likes to wear sunglasses.

Random Cute Pictures of Maizie

2006-11-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

Halloween

2006-11-09T20:59:00.000-07:00

Maizie loves to read.

2006-10-15T20:05:00.000-06:00

One of Maizie's favorite things to do is reading, which I absolutely love about her. She has very definite ideas about what books she likes. If you hand her a book on her do not read list she will fling it back at you. We have stacks of books all over the house. When Maizie first came home she loved to read, but they way that she liked reading was to flip through the pages quickly. If you were speedy, you may be able to read one word before she would flip to the next page. Now she lingers over the pages more so that we are able to read the stories. Her favorite book right now is "Goodnight Gorilla". She will point to the gorilla and say "ga". She has not said any full words yet, but she has a lot of sounds. Da for Jeff. Ga for gorilla. Ka for cat. Duh for dog. Ba for we are not sure. Boop for her lovey. In the pictures below her dress is covered with cat images and Maizie would point to her dress and say "ka". It was very cute.

Belly Button?

2006-10-11T21:46:00.000-06:00

Recently we met up with Maizie's friend An Ling at a park for an autumn celebration. An Ling is always very maternal towards Maizie. She likes to hold all of Maizie's cups for her. Maizie can never drink enough to make mama An Ling happy. An Ling is also very interested in belly buttons and kept trying to help Maizie locate her own belly button. Maizie was more interested in the ball.

Maizie at Play

2006-09-17T07:39:00.000-06:00

Maizie loves slides. She has only a mild interest in swings. She has no fear and seems to love the speed (unlike her Mommy, who hates going fast). She has also learned the joy of sliding down on her stomach. Let's keep our fingers crossed that she doesn't figure out out to go head first!

Maizie's New Walk

2006-09-05T17:04:00.000-06:00

Maizie favorite way to get around is by walking holding on to someone's hands. However if she has to crawl, she puts something under each hand, usually a book or postcard, and slides her hands along.

Photos

2006-08-22T15:59:00.000-06:00

Maizie is very difficult to take photos of because she firmly believes the camera belongs in her hands. As soon as I whip the camera out, Maizie lunges for it. Most of the pictures I take of Maizie are of the top of her head as she dives at me. I did manage to capture a few smiles. Maizie is allowed to hold the camera but I think we might have to put a stop to that because the camera is showing a lot of wear and tear due to Maizie's love. Of course Maizie takes the word "no" as a challenge so most likely we will let her destroy the camera and be known as over indulgent parents. I prefer to just think of ourselves as extremely smitten.

Maizie's First Birthday

2006-08-09T21:19:00.000-06:00

Today was Maizie’s 1^st Birthday. We had a pizza party for her at our house featuring Big Fred’s pizza. The guests were universally impressed with the delicious pizza. Several of Maizie’s cousins and friends from the China Links support group came to the party. Maizie seemed to enjoy the party, but did not like her cake. Maizie’s friend Jada couldn’t make it, but sent books and an e-card. Maizie got many other wonderful gifts. Maizie really enjoyed checking out the e-card.

Now that she is a big girl, Maizie decided there was no need for her morning nap. She paid for this by getting a little cranky and having to take a nap during her party.

Below are some pictures from the day and party.

Daddy was impressed by the dress white's Maize got as a gift.

Maizie didn't like her cake.

Taking Steps

2006-08-02T09:43:00.000-06:00

Maizie is working hard on learning to walk. She will take up to 4-5 steps in a row if she gets going. She sits in her little chair and stands up and will then lunge at us. Outside of when we are practicing with her from her little chair, she has only taken steps two other times. She still prefers to either crawl or walk with someone holding her hands. She can stand on her own but she will only do that when she is distracted by play and does not realize she is standing on her own.

Photos

2006-07-29T13:33:00.000-06:00

I doubt we have many remaining readers as we rarely post updates. Maizie is doing well. She is growing quickly, eating more and different foods, babbling more and saying "da da" and "boop", moving around quite a bit, and asserting her personality. Anyway, here are some photos from the past few weeks for those who may still be checking our blog.

Maizie at 11 Months

2006-07-09T21:44:00.000-06:00

Maizie turned 11 months old today. Today also marks four weeks since Carrie and I first met Maizie. With these mini-milestones, it seems appropriate to take stock of what our little girl has been through and how she has changed.

In the last four weeks, Maizie has been through a lot: a cultural, language and time change. She has traveled half-way around the world and become a U.S. citizen. She has met a new family and been introduced to cats and dogs. Maizie seems to take all these major changes in stride and is, although she is starting to assert her will and personality and is quick to let you know when she wants something, still a very happy baby.

It’s amazing how much Maizie has changed in the time we have known her. Four weeks ago, Maizie did a military crawl; today she can walk behind a walker and with Carrie or me holding her hands. Four weeks ago, Maizie would only take bottles; today, she eats three meals of solid foods a day, snacks on puffs through out the day and is weaning herself off the bottles. Four weeks ago, Maizie was content to play with her toys all alone; today, she wants to be paid attention to and the center of attention while playing. Four weeks ago, Maizie could only stand with our help; today she can pull herself up, walk around her activity table and even has even let go and stood for a few seconds on her own. Four weeks ago, Maizie had probably never had a book read to her; today, she points out the books she wants read to her (she generally prefers touch and feel books or books with photos of real babies, although she has recently warmed up to illustrated books) and helps with turning pages. Four weeks ago, Maizie didn’t know Carrie or me; today, she looks for and lunges towards us when someone else is holding her. Four weeks ago Maizie had never seen a cat; today, she goes nuts for Meadow and chases her with not one but two cat wands.

We feel very lucky that Maizie seems to be making so much progress and adjusting to her new life. We are really happy with Maizie’s progress to date and are looking forward to her first words (I think she said daddy in Mandarin the other day when she babbled “ba”, although Carrie disputes this) and first steps in the coming months.

Maizie's First Zoo Trip

2006-07-09T19:18:00.000-06:00

Carrie and I (and Aunt Beth) took Maizie to the zoo on Saturday afternoon. It was Maizie's first trip to the zoo. Although it didn't fill her with uncontrolled laughter and smiles, I think she enjoyed the zoo. She was alert and interested in the animals (as long as they were active). She would try to touch the animals and fish through the glass and get frustrated when she couldn't actually touch the animals. She would also get frustrated when the animals would not come back to her viewing area. Maizie probably enjoyed the petting zoo most, which is not surprising given how much she likes the cats and dogs. Here are some photos from Maizie’s first zoo trip.

Cat Whisperer

2006-07-07T22:41:00.000-06:00

Maizie loves the cats. J does not return Maizie's affection, but Meadow is her BFF. The only time J comes around Maizie is when she is eating breakfast and while she is in her bath. Maizie loves to use the cat dancer to make Meadow jump. She has a hard time getting the dancer to move in a way that Meadow can actually chase, but she refuses our help. Her new skill today was to race around in her walker holding on to the cat dancers with Meadow following.

What Maizie Likes

2006-07-02T19:16:00.000-06:00

Maizie likes reading books. Her favorite books are ones that have babies in them and the touch and feel books.

The Learning Table is Maizie's third favorite toy. Mr. Bumble Bee is number one (as seen above in Maizie's mouth), followed by her beach ball.

Maizie enjoys playing in her crib, but has yet to sleep in it.

Some of our favorite times is when the three of us cuddle in bed after naps. Maizie hates waking up, but once she does she is always
full of giggles.

Maizie likes flowers, but not too sure about grass.

Maizie started off with scooting, but now is walking short distances with the aid of this toy.
We do not think it will be long before she is standing and walking on her own.

25 June 2006 -- Two Weeks with Maizie

2006-06-25T13:09:00.000-06:00

Today marks two weeks with Maizie. She continues to amaze Carrie and me. I have no way of knowing for sure, but I think that the bonding is going fairly well as Maizie looks for both of us when we are out of the room and is very comfortable with both of us. We seem to spend a lot of time passing her back and forth as she wants both of us to hold her.

Maizie had a Dr.’s appointment on Friday. Her pediatrician confirmed that she looks great and is in good health. The four vaccinations, TB test and blood draw however put Maizie in a bad mood. It was very difficult to watch her go through this.

Yesterday, June 24, was Maizie’s Great Grandma King’s birthday and she came over to see Maizie. Here is a picture of Maizie with her Great Grandma.

We're Home

2006-06-22T22:34:00.000-06:00

We arrived home on June 21 at about 1:00 pm. Maizie was very good on the flights and the altitude change did not seem to bother her ears. She slept 11 hours of the 13 hour flight from Guangzhou to LA. Unfortunately for Carrie, Maizie spent most of this time sleeping on Carrie so Carrie didn’t get to sleep much on the long flight. I think taking the flight that left Guangzhou at 9 pm local time was definitely worth it as Maizie slept so well. Despite LAX’s spotty reputation, we cleared customs quickly as they gave priority to processing the families with adopted children.

Carrie’s parents met us at the airport. Here is a picture of Maizie with her mom and Grandma Schrader.

We arrived home to a sign welcoming Maizie home.

Maizie’s Great Grandma King also came over to see her. We also arrived home to a clean house. Thanks to all those who helped cleaning our house and taking care of our pets.

On Wednesday night, my brothers and sister came over to meet the baby and to have some pizza. Here’s a picture of Maizie, me, Uncle Phil, Aunt Beth, and Uncle Rich.

My parents sent flowers and gifts from Illinois to welcome Maizie home.

Today, we didn’t do much. We took Maizie on a walk this morning and found that the people from Carrie’s work had been by to decorate the house. Maizie then received a few visitors throughout the day and evening. Daddy and Maizie took a five hour nap to help recover from the jet lag. Maizie is sleeping now and seems to be adjusting to the time change and her new surrondings. Meadow, or little, cross-eyed cat, is taking a liking to Maizie and lets Maizie pet her, which is very surprising as Meadow hates kids as a general rule and runs and hides whenever kids are around. Maizie laughs at Meadow. She also isn’t scared of the other animals, which have basically ignored Maizie so far.

Leaving China -- Tuesday, June 20

2006-06-20T00:36:00.000-06:00

We leave for Maizie's swearing in ceremony in about 15 minutes and go dierectly to the airport from the ceremony to catch our long flight to LA. After our overnight layover in LA, we are scheduled to arrive home in Omaha shortly after noon on Wed. June 21. It's been a great journey so far and we had a great time in China, but are ready to get home. Carrie says she has lots of thoughts and impressions and hopes to post more later.

video clips

2006-06-18T21:55:00.000-06:00

Don't know if it will work or not, but here are some links to two short video clips of Maizie. It will probably take several minutes to download the video clips.

http://www.streamload.com/schaffro/EL/YE6KHT1O8N/Fathers_Day_Video

http://www.streamload.com/schaffro/EL/YE6KHT1O8N/FathersDay2

Father's Day - June 18, 2006

2006-06-18T07:50:00.000-06:00

Today was my first Father's Day with Maizie. She was in a good mood and very playful and loving, making a very special day even better. It also marks the first full week we have spent with Maizie.

We didn't do much today. After breakfast we did some shopping and bought some silk dresses and other souvenirs. We have more shopping to do tomorrow, which will be our last full day in Guangzhou. This afternoon, we took Maizie over to the White Swan to play in the play room over there and ran into the Perry's, the couple from California who adopted their daughter from the Jiang Cheng SWI at the same time we adopted Maizie, and ended up having dinner with the Perry's at one of the restaurants at the White Sw an. Here are some photos from today.

More from June 17

2006-06-17T07:26:00.000-06:00

After the medical exam, Maizie took a three hour nap. During this time, I went over to the Qingping market again. There's nothing in the market I would really like to buy, but it is interesting to see. Here are some photos of the market.

Tonight at dinner, Maizie ate her first bit of solid food. It was french fries. She took several bites in her mouth, but only actually ate two of them. She seems to be curious about solid food and we hope we can start transitioning her to solid food soon.

June 16/17 -- Almost a Full Week with Maizie

2006-06-16T22:10:00.000-06:00

We haven’t been doing much of anything. Just kind of wandering around Shamian Island and the surrounding area and hanging out with Maizie in the hotel room. Maizie has been teething and was really clinging to Carrie yesterday, although she did allow me to play with her as long as Carrie was around and didn’t cry when I take for a walk around Shamian Island by myself, but didn’t really like it. Yesterday, Fri, June 16, I did get to give her a bottle in the White Swan lobby. Carrie is doing a great job of mothering Maizie and Maizie seems to be bonding to her.

On Friday June 16, we took Maizie over to the White Swan hotel to play in the White Swan’s play room with the Perry’s daughter Kendall. Maizie really enjoys playing with other children and had a good time in the play room. On our way over to the White Swan, we ran into some of Maizie’s Chinese fans. It’s amazing the number of Chinese people who come up to us on the street to tell us how beautiful Maizie is.

After a nap, we took Maizie off Shamian Island and over to the Qingping market and surrounding shopping area. The Qingping market is a traditional Chinese market and features all kind of interesting herbs, vegetables, live stock and pets. The surrounding shopping area is a large pedestrian mall that is really a vivid example of the rising Chinese consumerism that is often in the news. There are at least two McDonalds and two KFC’s in this pedestrian shopping mall. On a muggy Friday afternoon, the area was absolutely packed. We didn’t get any digital pictures as we intentionally left the digital camera in the hotel room.

Maizie only got up once last night at about 2:00 am and went back to sleep when Carrie gave her a bottle, but ended up sleeping the rest of the night on Carrie’s chest.

Maizie woke up in a better mood this morning and let me give her her first bottle of the day and was very playful. She must be feeling better.

This morning, Maizie had her U.S. passport photo taken and her medical exam. She is 70 cm long (27.6 inches) and weighs 8.5 kilograms (18.6 pounds). On the Chinese growth charts, her height is at about the 33% and weight at about the 50% for a 10 month old baby girl. After the medical exam, we came back to the room to complete the paperwork for Maizie’s US visa. Luckily (for me), Maizie took a nap in her crib and Carrie got stuck filling out the lengthy I-604 immigration form.

We basically have nothing to do between now and 3:00 pm on Tuesday, when we leave for Maizie’s swearing in ceremony and the airport. We will invest the next couple of days in bonding with and getting to know Maizie better and will do some more shopping, which Carrie hates because of the haggling.

Friday

2006-06-16T07:34:00.000-06:00

This will be a quick entry. We took a turn for the worse in the sleeping last night. Jeff spotted a tooth coming in on top, so definitely the source of the fussiness. Maizie woke up 2-3 times in the middle of the night. Probably does not sound like a lot to you, but to us it was a long night. Also Jeff and I had never decided what our position was on cosleeping, but it seems Maizie may have made that decision for us. She falls asleep by the end of every bottle. No matter how soundly asleep she is, the second her head touches the crib she is up. We have tried to continue feeding her while she is in the crib but it is not effective. Her favorite place to sleep right now seems to be right on top of me. It is of course wonderful, but it also very sweaty and uncomfortable. Also it leads to her waking up a couple of times a night.

On the paperwork front, today we received Maizie's passport. Tomorrow we have her medical exam, which is more of a look over than an actual exam.

Maizie has taken a preference to me. She is still very interested in Jeff. Also when we are out walking she lets both Jeff and I hold her, but for bottles/sleep/play time in the hotel, I am the parent du jour. We think this is a good sign that she is attaching to us, but it does make it more exhausting for me, which is why photos only yesterday and text only tonight. Jeff is becoming very good at preparing bottles, washing bottles, fetching diapers and providing food for me.

A few more days and we will be home. I am looking forward to bringing Maizie home, but I know it means more changes for her. She is a very happy baby and I know she will adjust, but hopefully we will do a good job of not overwhelming her.

Teething

2006-06-15T17:55:00.000-06:00

Maizie now has a fifth tooth. She has been cranky and fussy and woke up a couple of times last night because of her teething.

Photos from Thursday

2006-06-15T06:59:00.000-06:00

Thursday

2006-06-14T17:56:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we had very little on our schedule. This turned out to be a good thing because Maizie was fussy. We think she is teething. She also had a fever, but otherwise seemed fine. We gave her some infant Tylenol and that helped.

We did go to the store again yesterday for more formula and bottles. She likes her formula thick and so we are really going through it. We also picked up some more bottles. She does not like the Playtex ones we brought. (Erin, I picked up a bottle for you in case you want to take one when you go to meet Hope. Let me know if you want me to show you how Maizie likes her. It is a little different than all the bottles I have made for my nieces and nephews.) I hope we have enough supplies so that we do no have to go there again. It is just too crazy.

We also walked around the island and went and checked out The White Swan Hotel. The White Swan is traditionally the hotel that most parents stay at when them come to Guangzhou. We chose to stay at The Victory because we heard the beds were more comfortable and it is a better price. The White Swan has a beautiful lobby, but I am glad we chose to stay at The Victory.

Otherwise we spent most of our time in the room playing quietly with Maizie. She took a lot of little naps yesterday. So far this morning she seems to be feeling better. She and Jeff are playing on the floor with the stacking cups.

We also made the decision yesterday to not go to Yangjiang. Yangjiang is Maizie's hometown. We were hoping to go see the outside of the orphanage and her finding spot. It is about 2.5 hrs away. We just could not envision having her in a car for that long without a car seat. Jeff asked at the hotel front desk and the tour guides and it is just impossible to find a car seat around her. I know of one couple that managed to find a car seat a few years ago but it took some dedicated looking. There is also some reports of flooding in the area. Instead we made her a promise that we will bring her back when she is older and she can see for herself. We are extremely disappointed because we feel it is important to give Maizie as much information as possible about her first ten months.

We have tried to do a little shopping but it is not going well. I hate negotiating the price. You would think with all the negotiating I do with my job, I would be a pro here. Jeff can do it better than I can but has not found anything he wants enough to really purchase it. Jeff just negotiates it down, decides it is still too high and walks away. (Mary I will try and pick up those items you want but maybe you should email me with what is an appropriate price to pay for it, otherwise I do not know if we will be able to get it done.)

Maizie is a constant joy for us. We feel so blessed to get to be with her. We are not really sure how she feels about us. Every morning when she wakes up she spends a long time staring at us and thinking before she will give us her smiles. Once she start sticking out her tongue and blowing raspberries we know she has decided we are ok for another day. She loves to stand and stare at herself in the mirror. She has incredibly long eyelashes. She has a belly button that sticks out and sticks out even more when she is full. She will crawl to Mommy, which makes my heart just melt. When we cuddle to have her bottle she sticks her fingers in my mouth and takes my glasses off. She is already learning things so fast. When we first played with the books, she did not really get the idea and now she is turning the pages. She laughs when Mommy and Daddy throw the beach ball back and forth. She is just perfect.

Day Three with Maizie -- June 13, 2006

2006-06-13T06:22:00.000-06:00

Today was rather uneventful. We met our guides in the morning and went to the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees. This is a Buddhist temple with a large pagoda in the center. There are also lots of bonsai trees and flowers in the temple. Maizie was blessed by a Buddhist monk.

This afternoon, while Carrie was watching Maizie during one of her naps, I wandered off Shamian Island to get KFC. Although tourists are generally encouraged to stay on the island, my adventure was really was an easy trip and I never felt lost or in danger. Judging from the asking price I saw in the many stores between our hotel and the KFC, I think that much better bargains on souvenirs and clothes can be had off the island and I will try to leave the island to do some shopping in the next couple of days.

Maizie continues to do well. She is eating and sleeping well. She is a happy baby and blows raspberries with her tongue. She laughs a lot and easily. Although she hasn't cried our fussed much, her laughter makes me want to cry; it is the sweetest sound I have ever heard.

Mommy's Little Maizie

2006-06-13T04:08:00.000-06:00

Day 2 With Maizie;The Adoption is Official -- June 12, 2006

2006-06-12T03:59:00.000-06:00

Today we finalized the adoption of Maizie under Chinese law. She is officially ours forever. The adoption took place at the same office that we met Maizie at. It took about two and half hours to complete the paperwork and the “interview” process. We had to promise to never abuse or abandon Maizie and to give her a good education. The actual paperwork and interview process only took about a half hour. Most of the time was spent waiting around in a play room with other adoptive families. Maizie was the most active of the newly adopted babies. She really enjoyed cruising around in the walkers. She would ram her walker into the other babies’ walkers and laugh. Here’s a picture of Maizie in a walker (the two girls behind her are a set of twins that a couple from Minnesota adopted).

Here’s a photo of the chaos in the play room while the families were waiting to finalize their paperwork.

Here’s a photo of us during the interview process.

On our way out the office building, we ran into the director and several nannies from the Jiang Cheng Social Welfare Institute where Maizie was adopted from. They were bringing 5 or 6 more girls in from the Jiang Cheng SWI to meet their new families.

After finalizing the adoption, we went to have Maizie’s passport photo taken. She fell asleep in Carrie’s arms in the cab ride to the office were the passport photo was taken (they don’t use car seats in China). She both plays and sleeps very hard.

We then came back to the hotel and finally got Maizie to finish off a bottle of formula (in fact she drank almost two bottles). She went down for a nap at about 1. We woke her up at about 3:30 as her normal schedule is to nap from noon to two and we didn’t want to deviate from that too much and also didn’t want her sleeping all afternoon and being up all night. I’m sure that waking a sound asleep baby from a nap breaks a cardinal rule of parenting, but we did it any way and she wasn’t too cranky about it.

Right now, we are just wandering around Shamian Island some and hanging out in the room to get to know Maizie better. Maizie enjoys looking out the window. We stand her up in the window sill and she is able to support herself and stand on her own by putting her hands on the window (we of course stay right there in case losses her balance). She also likes balls. She was fascinated by the Christmas ornament style balls hanging from the ceiling in the playroom and really likes the small beach ball we brought for her. She is taking bottles of formula and juice, but hasn’t eaten much of the rice cereal or fruit that we have been trying to feed her with a spoon. She still hasn’t fussed very much; we are keeping our fingers crossed that this continues. Finally, her rash and dry skin seemed to improve quite a bit after we rubbed her down with tea tree oil after last night's bath and we are hopeful that this will clear up shortly.

Maizie and Daddy

2006-06-12T00:44:00.000-06:00

Maizie Day -- June 11, 2006

2006-06-11T07:15:00.000-06:00

This has been one incredible day. We are absolutely in love with our daughter. Maizie is doing very well. She has a great personality. She is quick to smile and laugh and really enjoys playing with adults and her toys. She laughs and laughs and laughs. It’s too bad we aren’t technologically savvy enough to download a video of her laughing. She likes to rock and likes music. Our guides also told us that the nanny’s told them that she is a very smart and beautiful baby.

So far, she seems to be very comfortable with both Carrie and me holding her and playing with her. She is very curious and likes to look around. To my amazement, I think she actually enjoyed the car ride from the office we picked her up at back to our hotel as she was able to look at the hustle and bustle of Guangzhou. She also did very well when we took her to the crowded supermarket to pick up diapers and formula and enjoyed our walk around Shamian Island (the small island our hotel is on) to pick up our laundry. In fact, she was enjoying herself so much during our walk around Shamian Island, we sat at a park bench for about 15 minutes to play with her before coming back to the hotel. Knock on wood, but there hasn’t even been much crying or fussing yet (the only time she has cried so far was about 15 seconds when we were rubbing lotion all over her after her bath.) Our only minor concerns are that she didn’t drink quite as much formula as we wanted her to (about 2/3’s a bottle) and that she fell asleep at about 7:45 and her normal schedule is to go to bed at about 9:30.

Outside of a rash and some dry skin, Maizie seems to be in very good health -- she doesn’t even have a runny nose. Carrie and I are also very pleased with her development. She is able to roll over, crawl and grab and hold onto her toys and our hands. She also likes to stand on us with our help and seems to be relatively strong.

As for the details of the day, after a sleepless night, Carrie and I met our guides at 9:00 am and toured a local park with the Perry’s, the couple from California who is using our adoption agency. The park was beautiful and lush as Guangzhou is in a tropical climate, but I couldn’t really enjoy it as my mind was obviously elsewhere.

Following the park, we came back to the hotel and had to sit and wait a couple of long hours before leaving to meet the babies. We finally left the hotel at about 2 pm to meet the babies.

After filling out some paperwork (which was absolute torture as we knew the babies were in the next room), they finally brought us the babies. The orphanage director brought the Perry’s daughter Kendall in first and then brought Maizie in. Another larger group of 6 to 8 pairs of adoptive parents came into the room we were in to meet their babies, but I didn’t even notice that the other babies were brought into the room until we were getting ready to leave as I was so wrapped up with Maizie. We had a chance to visit with the director and nannies for a short amount of time and thank them for taking such good care of Maizie. I was able to give the director and two nannies copies of the updated photos of Maizie that were taken a couple of weeks ago for them to keep.

From there it was off to the extremely crowded supermarket to buy diapers and groceries and then back to the hotel for some more paperwork and down time. During the down time, we took Maizie around Shamian Island to pick up our laundry and sat on a park bench for a few minutes and played with her. We then gave her a bath and fed her and she fell right asleep. So far she has been sleeping like a log and hasn’t woken up or stirred even though the lights are on and Carrie and I have been talking.

At the end of a long, exhilarating day, that’s it for now. We’ll post more in the coming days as our incredible journey with Maizie continues.

2.5 hours left

2006-06-10T22:07:00.000-06:00

We leave the hotel in 2 hours and meet Maizie in 2.5 hours. Since I have nothing to do but wait, I thought I would give you a quick update on our day.

Our guides took us to a park this morning to distract us. We met the other couple from our agency that is going through the process us with us. It was fairly amusing, but the other mom to be and I were wearing the same outfit. Same skirt and shirt.

Right after meeting Maizie our guides are going to take us shopping to pick up supplies. Shopping is not really the first thing we had planned to do with Maizie but it works best with the schedule the guides set. Maybe it will be a good distraction for her.

We will post photos as soon as we can.

2 hrs and 20 minutes.

But who is counting.

Back to Guangzhou

2006-06-10T05:35:00.000-06:00

We made it back to Guangzhou and this time we made it out of the airport.

The flight was uneventful. Our guides Jim and Tom met us at the airport and checked us into the hotel. They also went over the schedule with us. We meet Maizie tomorrow at 2:30 pm!

We are settling into the hotel. We are staying at The Victory Hotel. It is traditional for a-parents to stay at The White Swan but we have heard so many good things about The Victory and it is a better price.

Hopefully we will sleep tonight. Jeff and I of course are extremely excited and aware that this is the last night before our lives change significantly, all for the better.

Last Full Day in Beijing -- Friday, June 9

2006-06-09T06:53:00.000-06:00

Today was our last full day in Beijing. Our first stop of the day was the Temple of Heaven. It was commissioned by the Ming Emperor Yongle (Yung Lu), the third Ming Emperor who moved the capital city from Nanching to Beijing. The Temple of Heaven is really a fabulous park that is frequented by many locals. When we arrived in the morning, there were lots of locals practicing Tai Qi, playing cards and Chinese checkers and flying kites.

When China was ruled by the imperial dynasties, the Emperors would come to the Temple of Heaven three times annually to worship the god of heaven and pay homage to their ancestors. The Emperors would pray for a good harvest. During their time of worship, the emperors made “great” personal sacrifices and abstained from meat and even their concubines for three days.

The main building within the Temple of Heaven is the Hall of Prayer and Good Harvest. It is circular structure supported by 28 interior beams. There are no nails used in the structure. As you can see from the photo, the Hall of Prayer and Good Harvest is quite intricate and colorful. It was recently refurbished for the 2008 Olympic Games and is absolutely splendid.

After the Temple of Heaven, we toured a Hu Tong, which is a traditional neighborhood with very narrow streets. We were passengers in bicycle powered rickshaws while touring the Hu Tong. We visited a very hectic fruit and vegetable market and had lunch at a family's house. The food was surprisingly quite good.

We then returned to our hotel for a couple of hours to clean up before a Chinese Acrobat show. During this down time, I went to world famous Yangfujing shopping district which is two blocks from our hotel. I bought two knock off Polo shirts from a street vendor right outside the shopping district for approximately $18. Our guide told me I got swindled and shouldn't have paid more than $10 for the pair. I will have to negotiate harder in the future. The Yangfujing shopping district is very trendy and you pretty much find anything there that you would be able to get in Vegas or New York.

The acrobat show we went to tonight was an amazing display of strength, flexibility, balance and agility. The finale featured 13 female acrobats forming a peacock as they rode one bicycle around in a circle. Here are some pictures from the show.

Following the show, we had dinner with our guide at a local restaurant and had Peking duck. I have got to say, it was not my favorite.

That's it for now. Tomorrow we leave for Guangzhou. In approximately 36 hours, we will get Maizie. Carrie and I can hardly stand waiting any longer, although the time has flown by while in Beijing. We’ll try to post more tomorrow after we get to Guangzhou.

After the Temple of Heaven, we toured a Hu Tong, which is a traditional neighborhood with very narrow streets. We were passengers in bicycle powered rickshaws while touring the Hu Tong. We visited a very hectic fruit and vegetable market and had lunch at a family's house. The food was surprisingly quite good.

We then returned to our hotel for a couple of hours to clean up before a Chinese Acrobat show. During this down time, I went to world famous Yangfujing shopping district which is two blocks from our hotel. I bought two knock off Polo shirts from a street vendor right outside the shopping district for approximately $18. Our guide told me I got swindled and shouldn't have paid more than $10 for the pair. I will have to negotiate harder in the future. The Yangfujing shopping district is very trendy and you can pretty much find anything there that you would be able to get in Vegas or New York.

The acrobat show we went to tonight was an amazing display of strength, flexibility, balance and agility. The finale featured 13 female acrobats forming a peacock as they rode one bicycle around in a circle. Here are some pictures from the show.

Following the show, we had dinner with our guide at a local restaurant and had Peking duck. I have got to say, it was not my favorite.

That's it for now. Tomorrow we fly to Guangzhou. In approximately 36 hours, we will get Maizie. Carrie and I can hardly stand waiting any longer, although the time has flown by while in Beijing. We’ll try to post more tomorrow after we get to Guangzhou.

More on Thursday in Beijing

2006-06-08T07:49:00.000-06:00

We went to The Great Wall first thing this morning. We were very impressed by it. I can't even begin to imagine the sheer torture it would have been for the people building the wall. Jeff climbed to the top of the section we visited. Our guide said that made him a hero. Kim and I stopped climbing after I just could not step another foot, and instead sat on the side and talked politics. I explained red and blue states to her.

After the Great Wall we went to the jade factory. After a quick lesson on the types of jade we were ushered into a shop. I spent more money than Jeff wanted. We purchased a rooster pendant and bangle for Maizie. For us, we purchased a male/female lion pair.

Then onto lunch. For all those concerned, I am doing well with the food. We have a western style breakfast at the hotel in the morning. For lunch, we eat at a restaurant along the way. Although I am a picky eater, I am finding plenty to eat. I keep falling asleep before dinner. Jeff is still having trouble sleeping and so we are not getting any good night sleeps.

Then to the cloisonne factory. More mini lessons followed with shopping.

We went to the Ming tombs in the afternoon. I have heard that this is one of the least favorite places to visit, but I enjoyed it. There is a long avenue of sculptures that we walked by and then we visited one of the tombs. You cannot see the tomb because it is underground, but you see the structure on top. Kim is very impressed with the third emperor of the Ming dynasty because that is the emperor that made Beijing the capital city.

We had a traditional Chinese massage after all of our walking. I think during it we could not decide if we liked it or not because they really pounded on us. I felt like a drum. Afterwards we definitely felt refreshed. I felt really bad for the workers who had to get near our feet.

Then a quick break in the room before we went to a kung fu show.

Beijing really is an amazing city. There are buildings going up everywhere, but the city is sprawling and so I do not feel like the building are on top of each other. The city also is planting everywhere. It is the greenest large city I have seen. The rose is the city flower and so there are rose bushes all over the place.

You see so many amazing things, that I think you forget about the negatives of China. On our way to the kungfu show we say a bunch of workers by the side of the road. Kim explained that the laborers work hard for very little money. They are only paid once a year and so can easily lose out on their wages if the employer skips out before pay day. Most of them sleep outside to avoid rent. This harsh lifestyle is preferable to being a farmer. We also discussed how hard the health care system is. In China, you are not given any treatment until you pay. Because the cost is so expensive most people chose not to see a doctor even though they should.

Tomorrow we are going to a temple and acrobatic show.

I am getting very anxious to get to Maizie. I love all that we are seeing. I would recommend a trip to Beijing to anyone, but Maizie is the reason we are in China and so the sooner we get to her the better.

Touring Beijing - Thursday

2006-06-08T07:39:00.000-06:00

Touring Beijing - Day one

2006-06-07T07:45:00.000-06:00

We met our guide in the lobby at 8:30 am. Our first stop was Tiananmen Square. Since it rained last night, we had a fairly clear day. Tiananmen really is a very large square with people milling about.

The Forbidden City is on one side of Tiananmen. You have to go through three gates to actually reach the Palace. A lot of the Forbidden City is covered in scaffolding. The goverment is restoring the structures with a completion goal for the Olympics. Our guide constantly gives us historical commentary and so we learned a lot. There is a raised bar across the bottom of all doorways to keep the ghosts out. Ghost cannot jump. We dutifully hoped over the bars to avoid bad luck.

There are lions that guard the gates. There is always a female and male lion. You can tell them apart because the male has one foot resting on a ball symbolizing power and the female has one foot resting on a baby lion. Everything is named using the word peace to show the emperor's most important goal. I believe Kim said it took 18 years to complete the Forbidden City.

Kim told us a lot about the concubines. The emperor would have one wife and then thousands of concubines. The wealthy families would send portraits of their daughters to the emperor. The concubines would then have to pass inspection first by the head eunich. The girls would be between 12-18 yrs old and would have to be viewed naked by the eunich to make sure they had no flaws. Then the girls would have to be chosen by the empress. Most of the concubines would never see the emperor because their were just to many women to get too.

There are animal figurines that decorate the roofs. The figurines always come in odd numbers. Odd numbers are heavenly numbers and even numbers are earthly numbers. Nine is the best number and is the imperial number. Only the emperor's building within the Forbidden City have nine figurines on the roof. Maizie has a good birthday because she was born on the ninth, which is the imperial number.

Kim seems very amused by Jeff's height. Kim said that height is a sign of attractiveness in men and so Jeff is very handsome. She giggled when we took her picture next to Jeff and was very impressed when we were standing on a step above Jeff and he was still taller.

We then went to the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is more artistic than The Forbidden City. There are alot of long stones. The long stones represent longevity. There are cypresses everywhere. Cypress represents love. Our guide took our photo in front of a 500 year old cypress and wishes us love lasting as long as the tree. There is a large man made lake for The Summer Palace. When the Summer Palace was constructed the lake was dug out. The dirt was formed into a hill, Longevity Hill. Kim said every winter the water evaporates and the water has to be brought back in.

Next we went to Beijing Zoo to see the Pandas. I killed the battery in the digital camera so we do not have any digital photos to upload. The pandas do not move very much, but they were very exciting to see.

Finally we returned exhausted to the room. Tomorrow is The Great Wall, The Ming Tombs, a kung fu show at night and one more day closer to Maizie.

Photos from First Day in Beijing

2006-06-07T02:49:00.000-06:00

Here are some photos from the first day of our Beijing tour. The top photo is Carrie and me standing in Tiananmen Square across the street from the Forbidden City. The second photo is inside one of the gates entering the Forbidden City. The third one is our guide Kim and me inside the Forbidden City. The fourth photo is Carrie in front of one of the female lions that guards the Forbidden City. The fifth one is Carrie and me inside the Forbidden City in front of a tree with two tunks that symbolizes love. The last one is a view from inside the Summer Palace. The battery quickly died on our digital camera as Carrie was using it to take video so we only got the one digital photo inside the Summer Palace, although we got lots of video with our video camera (which we didn't really use in Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City).

Better today

2006-06-06T17:19:00.000-06:00

This is how we felt yesterday. Notice the dark circles that are Jeff's eyes. Very flattering photo.

We did sleep better last night, although the bed is very hard. Jeff had to resort to beer drinking to get himself to sleep. I hear it is a good think to drink beer here though because it will kill some of the funky bacteria swirling around.

It is 6:30 am and we are getting ready for our day of sight seeing. Our guide is a young lady that goes by the name Kim. Kim is very excited about the 2008 Olympics. She is already planning on beating us in the medal count. Kim just graduated from college here in Beijing. She majored in the English language. Her English is excellent, much better than my Chinese. I did have to use my Chinese a few times at the airport yesterday when we were in the Guangzhou airport. It was stilted but did get the job done.

This is a photo of the view from our hotel room. Notice the pollution (it's still this hazy after a rain storm last night). You can really feel it in the air.

More later.

Made it to Beijing

2006-06-06T01:06:00.000-06:00

Carrie and I finally made it to Beijing. We just checked into our room about an hour ago. Our tour of Beijing should be informative and relaxing. We have our own personal English speaking guide who will go with us to all the tourist sites. We also have our own driver that will drive us around Beijing. Tomorrow (which is Wednesday for us) we are going the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square in the morning and then the Summer Palace in the afternoon. On Thursday we are going to the Great Wall and Ming Tombs. On Friday we are going Beijing Zoo to see their 5 pandas.

The trip over was very long. The more expensive seats we purchased for the flight from LA to Guangzhou were comfortable and well worth it. I would have gone crazy in the coach seats. Even with the comfortable seats and the help of prescription sleeping pills, I was unable to sleep on the LA to Guangzhou flight and only got about an hour's worth of sleep. Apparently, I am immune to Ambien. I took the prescribed dose of two pills, and then took two more after 2 hours, but still never got any real sleep.

We are very much looking forward to meeting Maizie on Sunday and will post more later. For now, we got to try to get some rest.

p.s. Happy birthday to my Dad who turns 56 today.

Flights and Who is Sleeping

2006-06-04T15:48:00.000-06:00

Our flight plan took us from Omaha, with a quick stop in Phoenix then onto LA. We are currently in LA, 5 hours into our 14 hour lay over. We fly out of LA at midnight to go to Guangzhou, with a quick lay over and then onto Beijing.

So far travel has gone smoothly. Jeff did get an exit aisle seat from Omaha to LA. We rented a hotel in LA so that we could sleep before the long part of our flight. Jeff is trying to get his time switched over to China time, so he slept maybe 2 hours last night. Jeff is currently fast asleep, like I should be. Although I did not get much sleep last night, I was out long enough that I can not sleep now.

I am too anxious to get to Maizie to relax long enough to sleep. Once we have Maizie I am sure I will regret all these lost sleep opportunities. Not to imply that Jeff is not anxious, he just finally worked himself into exhaustion so that he could sleep.

It still does not feel quite real that we are on our way, but it does feel wonderful.

For those who do not know....

2006-06-03T17:27:00.000-06:00

Just in case we get a lot of new visitors to our story, I wanted to let everyone know that this site is for our travels. Up until now, we have posted all our updates on our adoption website.

www.mingmeispalace.com

Time to Go!

2006-06-03T11:29:00.000-06:00

We leave tomorrow morning. Wow! There were many moments/days/months that I thought this day would never come, but it did and I could not be happier.

We will try and post often. We will try and post a lot of photos because generally speaking I think that is what people really want to see.

Please feel free to leave comments. We will try and answer every one.

Updated Photos Of Maizie

2006-05-26T05:43:00.000-06:00

Updated Photos Of Maizie

2006-05-26T05:39:00.000-06:00

Updated Photos